A colorful cake for a whimsical bridal shower (made by yours truly & her mom)

A few weeks back, I wrote about my sister’s upcoming bridal shower. At the time, I didn’t want to reveal everything I was doing because I wanted Ashley to be surprised. Now that the shower is over, I can finally blog about it. First, a quick reminder of what I had planned. For her bridal shower, Ashley wanted a tea party, complete with the traditional High Tea menu of tea sandwiches, scones, and pastries. I decided to make it more Alice in Wonderland/whimsical and less Queen of England/formal, with a bit of a garden party feel.

The Shower Site - The Carriage Barn at Mill Hollow Metropark in Vermilion, Ohio

When I started planning, I had a million ideas bouncing around my head. And I wasn’t entirely sure I could use them all. I was also a little nervous, as I had never thrown such a big and important party. And, in addition to planning and hosting the shower, I was determined to make the food and the cake. Fortunately, the wonderful ladies in my family were there to help me pull everything together for Ashley’s shower. I am happy to say that it turned out exactly how I’d pictured it in my head.

Teapot Centerpieces & Lollipop Flower Favors

Click below for my tea party menu and lots of pictures of the event. Maybe they’ll inspire you to host your own tea party!

Tea Party Menu

• Cucumber Sandwiches with Cream Cheese & Dill
• Tomato Sandwiches with Cream Cheese & Italian Parsley
• Mini Egg Salad Croissants with Green Leaf Lettuce
• Tortilla Roll-ups
• Raw vegetables with Dill Dip
• My Tropical Fruit Salad & Key Lime Dip



• White Chocolate Cranberry, Orange & Maple Scones from Avenue Fine Pastries in Lakewood, Ohio, served with clotted cream & preserves
• Strawberry Cake with Buttercream Frosting
• Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes with Almond Whipped Cream Frosting

• White Cherry & Lemon-Mint Iced Teas, Raspberry Limeade & Coffee

With the exception of the tortilla roll-ups, scones and raspberry limeade, everything was made from scratch by me or one of the ladies in my family. I used cake recipes I had tried before, though they were in a different form. For the cake, I used this Strawberry Cupcake recipe. I like it because it does not call for cake mix or strawberry-flavored gelatin, which a lot of strawberry cake recipes do require. Also, it isn’t overly sweet which is nice when you’re using a frosting that’s as sugary as buttercream. For the cupcakes, I used this recipe for the Great American Chocolate Cherry Cake. Both recipes turned out moist & fluffy cakes that were easy to frost and work with. (A quick aside on the cake. It’s maybe the fifth cake I’ve ever made and the first tiered one. Considering this, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out!)

The Beautiful Bride showing off her edible cake topper

Of course, we had to play a game. I hate the majority of shower games, especially the one that involves making a wedding dress out of toilet paper. Instead, I decided to do a quiz called “Getting to Know the Bride & Groom”. I asked 21 questions: 7 about Ashley, 7 about Justin & 7 about them as a couple. The questions asked about things like his winter hobby (snowboarding), her (a daycare) and where they’re honeymooning (Ocho Rios, Jamaica). The winner was the person who got the most questions right.

After the game, my grandma (Honey) cut and served the cake. Everyone had cake and chatted while Ashley opened her presents. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that someone had booked the Carriage Barn for right when the shower was scheduled to end. So we had to leave in a bigger hurry than I would have liked. But the rest of the day went so smoothly that I couldn’t be too upset over it. I am so thankful that I had the chance to throw this shower for Ashley, and that it allowed so many wonderful ladies to get together and enjoy good food and celebration on a Saturday afternoon.

From L-R: Me, Mom & Ashley modeling our tea hats

Finally, I can’t thank my Mom, Honey, Aunt Ruby and Cousin Dianna enough for helping me make this such a special day for Ashley. They put up with my bossiness and helped me with anything I asked them to do. Without them, this wouldn’t have been such a success.

Part of a balanced breakfast. But only if we're balancing caffeine & sugar

Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes is probably not a book I would have ever purchased for myself. Yet I was excited when I received a copy as a gift. It seems like the majority of cupcake books and magazine articles provide cute cupcake decorating ideas, rather than actual recipes for cupcakes. I tend to do the same thing though. When making cupcakes, I focus on the decorations while using basic cake and frosting recipes. While those recipes are good, they can get boring. This is why I like Martha’s book. Her cupcakes are certainly attractive. But they are also different. There are lots of ways to make cupcakes that I had never thought of. For example, Streusel Cupcakes. These are essentially coffee cakes in cupcake form – the perfect way to justify eating cupcakes for breakfast.

Streusel Cupcakes
Makes 24

Cupcake Ingredients
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. sour cream

Streusel Ingredients
2 1/4 c. flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. unsalted butter

Milk Glaze Ingredients
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbsp. milk

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line cupcake tins with paper liners.
2. Make the streusel by whisking flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut in the butter and combine until crumbly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Using a whisk, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one-by-one, beating until each egg has been incorporated. Add vanilla. Finally, add flour mixture and sour cream. Mix to combine; but do not overmix.
5. Pour batter into muffin tins. Top with half of the streusel, gently pressing topping into batter. Sprinkle remaining topping over cupcakes. Bake for 20 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
6. While cupcakes are cooling, make the milk glaze by whisking together powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle glaze over cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!

My Thoughts & Suggestions
The original recipe called for one cup of granulated sugar. In a lot of baked goods, I tend to prefer a mix of brown and white sugars. So I used a half cup of each instead. Other than that, I followed the recipe as it was given. These cupcakes came out moist and fluffy, and were a perfect morning indulgence alongside a cup of coffee.

Recipe Source: Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes from the editors at Martha Stewart Living.

Here in Columbus, there is a lot of snow on the ground. The temperatures have been consistently below freezing. It’s too cold to really enjoy any time spent outside. As a result, winter hibernation mode is seriously setting in. To me, this means lots of lazy weekends at home – reading blogs and books, playing games (video, board, tabletop), and enjoying comfort food. In short, winter is a perfect excuse to post this set of links:

• Video game cupcakes are nothing new. I made the ones pictured above a few years ago for a Super Bowl party. I know they aren’t standard Super Bowl party fare. But this is the same group of friends that has spent more than one New Years Eve playing Guitar Hero and Mario Kart. So I knew they would be appreciated. It was my first time using fondant, and taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of using flavorless red dye. For those that don’t know, red dye tends to be very bitter unless you use the flavorless version. I didn’t know this until my cute little cupcakes were topped with bitter red piranha plants. The cupcakes were still a hit. However, these game cupcakes that have been making the rounds on the internet beat my Mario cupcakes by a long shot.
• Jared and I often make homemade pizza on Sunday nights. To be honest, he makes the pizza crust. I just top it. One of these days, he’ll get around to posting his crust recipe on here. Until then, you’ll just have to trust me that it’s really good. Pizza on a Stick looks like a fun variation on regular pizza.
• What is a good weekend brunch without a cocktail? The problem is that mimosas seem very summery to me, and bloody marys are just plain nasty. Mele Kalikimaka Martinis would be a nice winter alternative, even after the holidays are over.
• On winter mornings, it’s always nice to have a healthy, homemade breakfast. Considering extra the drive-time that a winter commute can involve, it’s especially nice if that breakfast that can be eaten on the run or at the office. So I will definitely spend a Sunday afternoon making these Apple Walnut Spice Muffins very shortly.
• I do not give my slow cooker enough credit. Aside from Apple Butter Weekend, I really only pull it out a few times a year.  This winter, I have been trying to change that. I am continually surprised by the things one can make in a slow cooker. For example, it seems like a creamy soup would burn in the slow cooker. I hope this Crockpot Potato Soup recipe will prove me wrong when I try it.